I want to share some photos others sent in. These photos and sightings have added another level of understanding about the birds and wildlife in the Big Country. Diane Longenecker, Bird Supervisor from the Abilene Zoo, sent me two photos of an injured dark raptor, the face of which you see here. The photo gallery explains what it is.

Kim Walton, Natural Resources Manager from Dyess AFB, sent a couple of photos of cavorting after-dark wildlife captured on a digital field camera. Racoons weren’t the only mammals that showed up in the images.

Heidi Trudell, birder-at-large, sent a couple of photos of Lake Kirby’s not-so-wildlife (above);

and I included a couple of contrasting Red-tailed Hawk pictures to illustrate just how variable their plumage is. You can see all these pictures at November’s Wildlife Gallery.

And if you’re interested in what’s happening to the jaeger, here’s Heidi’s report from Lake Kirby at the end of November:

I made it out to Kirby for about an hour today, (11-28) not particularly in the name of birding, but the results were about the same. I did not relocate the jaeger but a fellow that I’ve seen every time I was out there said that “the huge brown gull” was around as recently as yesterday. He’s a local who spends most of his time fishing and what impressed me most about his remarks was that he actually told the other folks out there to keep an eye out for the bird after he found out that a lot of us were interested in it. Apparently over the weekend he and his friend were fishing on the SW corner of the lake and while they were tossing bait scraps (or some equally delicious fare) into the lake, the jaeger swooped down and grabbed at the bits – getting tangled in the line in the process. At this point the details of the story get blurry and the jaeger’s size increases to a wing span THIS big and the toes turn into claw/talons like a lion and it apparently took gloves, 2 people and a lot of untangling to get the bird free again. Good to know they’re looking out for the wildlife.

Thanks to all for sending in your photos and stories!